WASHINGTON – Media reports on Wednesday suggested the Obama administration had
developed red lines for determining when to strike militarily against
Iran.
American news site
The Daily Beast reported that in recent weeks,
Washington had taken steps to reassure Israel “that the administration had its
own ‘red lines’ that would trigger military action against Iran, and that there
is no need for Jerusalem to act unilaterally.”
RELATED:'Speculation of Israel's nuclear arms deters Iran'EJC president slams European firms dealing with IranAccording to the website,
remarks by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta earlier this month that were perceived
as tough on Israel triggered pressure on the Obama administration to clarify its
stance on such military action.
The article also cited multiple US
military sources claiming that “analysts attached to the Office of the Secretary
of Defense are often revising estimates trying to predict what events in Iran
would trigger Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to authorize a military attack
on the country’s nuclear infrastructure.”
Most important, the report
claimed, the upswing in high-level talks between Washington and Jerusalem in the
past month has “prompted new conversations between the United States and Israel
over what the triggers... would be to justify a preemptive attack on Iran’s
nuclear facilities.”
Complicating the dialogue, the report said, is that
the countries fundamentally disagree on whether Iran is currently engaging in
weaponization, or whether such production has remained frozen since
2003.
In response to inquiries by
The Jerusalem Post, Pentagon spokesman
George Little reiterated that “Secretary Panetta believes that diplomatic and
economic pressure must be brought to bear against Iran to make it clear that the
international community will not accept an Iran that possesses a nuclear
weapon.”
Little also reiterated the administration’s position that “all
options are on the table,” but added that “the military option remains a last
resort.”
One of America’s “red-lines” became clearer on Wednesday, when
the US
responded sternly to Iranian threats to close the strategic Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow opening of the Persian Gulf through which much of the world’s
oil supplies pass.
The Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet circulated an e-mail
saying, “Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an
international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption
will not be tolerated.”
